Top 10 of 2012, #8: Local plane crashes

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From now until Dec. 31, CTV Kitchener is counting down the top 10 local stories of 2012. Catch the countdown each night on CTV News at Six.

At number 8 are the stories of six people with ties to Waterloo Region and the surrounding area that died tragically in plane crashes.

Calabogie crash

74-year-old Bob Reany was a pilot from Port Elgin with extensive international flying experience. But on Thanksgiving, he was killed when his brand new six seater plane went down in a wooded area near Calabogie.

Reany was the only one in the plane at the time, as he had dropped off the owner in Ottawa.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation. At the time, Reany’s family said they couldn’t imagine a mechanical malfunction he was incapable of handling.

“If anybody could have done anything to salvage that aircraft and not crash it, he would have been the fellow,” Bob’s brother Bill Reany told CTV News at the time.

Puslinch Lake

A few weeks after the Calabogie incident, a float plane crashed at Puslinch Lake. The plane had been landing and taking off all afternoon.

The pilot, 47-year-old Russel Hawkins of Guelph, died at the scene. A passenger survived the crash.

Moorefield crash

In August, a single engine Cessna 172 from the Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre went down north of Kitchener in a cornfield near Moorefield.

Four people were on board and had taken off from the Region of Waterloo airport on what was supposed to be a sightseeing tour to Niagara Falls and Toronto. All four were killed when the plane crashed.

20-year-old Marko Misic was the pilot of the rented plane, and described by a former classmate as an avid flyer.